Black Friday: Best Buy readies $197 HP laptop

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally the day retailers see profits start to creep out from a sea of red.

The HP G60-507DX, which packs an Intel Celeron 900 processor, a 160 gigabyte hard drive, and 2 gigs of ram, normally sells for nearly three times as much. Friday's deal sees the full-featured laptop venture into a price range normally reserved for netbooks.

But this bargain, attractive as it may seem, is only for the truly deal-devoted: Slashgear is reporting that Best Buy stores are slated to have just five units apiece of the hot little notebook, and that purchasers will be limited to one each.

How can Best Buy profit from a sub-$200 laptop?

The answer: accessories! Those who line up overnight for the basic laptop can expect to be hounded with regular-priced (read: marked-up) USB cables, printer cartridges, and a list of subscription services. Plus, Best Buy is likely counting on the buzz of this deal to lure in later-sleeping shoppers arriving too late to pick up the laptop, but who will drop their dollars on something else.

Previously Horizons took a look at some of the other deals the chain is offering starting at 5 am Friday (hint: the $1,600 LED TV, while slick and available online a day early, is the least-impressive bargain).

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